Work on Writing: Cold Is...

For the last two weeks for Work on Writing we have been working cooperatively to create 'Cold Is...' poems. We have used the Book Creator App to help us put these books together. We then published them as a video.

Here are our Cold Is... poems.

Hour of Code in Room Totara

This week students have been giving 'coding' a go. They have been completing different coding levels in 'The Hour of Code'.

What is 'The Hour of Code'?

The Hour of Code is a global movement by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries through a one-hour introduction to computer science and computer programming.

Each student is working towards completing 'The Hour of Code' and when they do they will receive a certificate that looks a bit like this:

Round the Mountain Challenge Certificates

Even more certificates awards for completing our goals in our Round the Mountain Challenge.

Here are the next set of certificates:

Stop Motion Finalised!!!

We have finally finished taking hundreds of photos and we have put them together to create our Stop Motion Animations.

Unfortunately we can not show you the final products as we are keeping them for the MOA Awards. We hope you can wait...

Here is a sneak peak of what the title look like. They might give you an idea of what we have done.

Certificates for Week 6

Today has seen another week of certificates being handed out to people showing PRIDE.

Luke and Levi were recipients of the Principal's Award for their effort in completing our Round the Mountain Challenge.

PRIDE Certificates also went to Mazzlin, Madison, Dallas, Aila and Dalia. They have been persevering in their Stop Motion work and complete reading activities at home.

MOA Kluster changing technology and education

Opunake Primary School and our MOA Kluster has made the paper.

A "cutting edge" approach to education using technology is having a big impact in four rural Taranaki schools.

Opunake, Matapu, Kaponga and Auroa primary schools have formed the "MOA Kluster", a joint approach to the training for and implementation of e-learning in its classrooms.

Opunake Primary School principal Lorraine Williamson said the approach was designed to create "cutting edge innovation in Taranaki schools" and authentic uses for classroom technology.

"We think it's fairly innovative because these teachers are doing the research then they are doing a combined teacher inquiry," she said.

Sharing the learning across the four schools was part of their joint aim to change the direction of maths education across the board.

"We are very keen to explore computational thinking which is a way of thinking around STEM subjects."

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, taught as integrated subjects based on real-world applications is something the school's want to trial starting in 2017.

"What we are reading is that computational thinking will be a necessity for kids coming through school today."

Williamson said there were lots of irons in the fire, a science research and development team would be set up next year.

"We are currently applying to the New Zealand Society of Science to put forward four teachers to do six months in-depth training with scientists in the field. They would be expected to come back and share that learning with the rest of the teachers in the schools."

The 2017 focus would be on engineering, Williamson said she felt the technology aspect was already being well-covered.

Auroa School principal Heath Chittenden said the implementation encompassed far more than computers and devices. It was about technologies.

He has been visited by about 50 school representatives from around the country over 12 months because of the work they are doing.

Matapu School principal Jarad Chittenden said it was the biggest thing the school was doing at the moment "but in a really positive way."

"This is something that we wouldn't have done without being a part of that cluster."

Kaponga Primary School principal Shane Downs said he had joined the group slightly later so was now focused on catching up.

"One of the big things for us is that, for our teachers and our kids, there is something to aim for," he said.

"We're trying to work at twice the speed."

As part of the cluster's approach, the schools pioneered the Moa Awards in 2014.

Each school can submit up to 10 items created by their students throughout the school year using technology that are independently judged across different categories.

Designed to motivate students across a level playing field, Matapu principal Jarad Chittenden said he was blown away by his students technological understanding.

"It's just trying to get teachers to use that technology in authentic ways."

A wholly successful event so far, Chittenden said hundreds of tickets were sold to last year's event.

"It was way bigger than we thought it was going to be."

Held at the Sanford's Event's Centre in Opunake, it provided students and teachers to showcase what happened at their school.

"What we wanted teachers to do was incorporate technology," he said.

"We think it is a good way to engage kids in the classroom through using those devices."

For students that struggled with book presentation, it allowed different mediums to display their classroom learning.

"If a kid's doing a video they can show more understanding than if they had written it down."

Sponsored by the Lysaght Watt Trust, the awards were treated as a traditional ceremony, students dressed in their best and arrived in style.

 - Stuff

Round the Mountain Challenges

Congratulations to Levi and Luke who have completed the Round the Mountain Challenge. They have completed 153 laps(km) in our preparations for cross country. They have run the equivalent of running around Mount Taranaki.

These boys have also reached their goal that they set at the beginning of the term. 

Also congratulations to Caitlin, Caleb, Christian, Dallas, Tristan, Shakshi, Jessica and Sienna who have reached their goals that they set.

Stop Motion - Giving it a go.

Here is a video of the class working together in their groups to give Stop Motion animations a go.

How do you think we will get on?

Stop Motion Storyboards

Our Stop Motion movies are starting to come to life. We have created some storyboards to help us plan what we want to do. 

Dominoes by Caleb, Connor, Shakshi & Tamzyn

Red Car by Sienna-Nicole, Kade, Mazzlin & Tristan

Minecraft by Madison, Dallas, Aila & Dalia

Matchbox Cars by Troy, Luke & Connor

PRIDE by Reece, Caitlin & Dante

Lego by Sequoia, Sienna, Jessica & Sofia

Minions by Levi, Alex, Christian & Tyrone

Punctuation

This week we are working on punctuation. We are writing sentences that use full stops (periods), question marks and exclamation points. Check out our individual blogs for students examples of them using punctuation.

Certificates for Week 5

Congratulations to Troy. He received the Principal's Award for Week 5. He is a student who is always demonstrating PRIDE and will persevere to get all of his school work completed to a high standard.

Congratulations also go to Connor, Luke, Tyrone, Caleb and Tamzyn. They have been demonstrating PRIDE in their work as well.

Tristan - Room 15 @ Opunake Primary: Partly Cloudy

Tristan really worked diligently with his writing this week. With the support of Miss Ogle here is the link to his finished story.

Tristan - Room 15 @ Opunake Primary: Partly Cloudy: Gus was an angry cloud. Peck delivered animals to houses. He got bitten in the face, he got electrocuted by a electric eel, then ...

He Aha Te Tae? What Colour Is This?

We have completed another entry for our MOA Awards. We have been working on this project for the last five weeks as a part of our Te Reo. This is a topic called He Aha Te Tae? (What colour is this?).

Below are some snapshots of what we have produced. We will be keeping the actual projects a secret until the MOA Awards.